The Bottom Line: In the United States, little evidence is available to document Chagas disease prevalence, assess congenital and vector-borne transmission risk, and quantify the clinical disease burden. Based on immigration estimates for the United States and prevalence estimates in Latin America, more than 300,000 persons with Chagas disease are living in this country; many of these persons do not know that they are infected. An estimated 63–315 babies acquire T. cruzi infection congenitally in the United States every year but most infections go undetected and untreated. Based on these estimates, chagasic cardiomyopathy, which can be prevented through early treatment, affects approximately 30,000–45,000 persons in the United States.

Although an estimated 300,000 persons with Chagas disease live in the United States, little is known about the burden of chagasic heart disease. It is not known how often congenital or vector-borne transmission of T. cruzi occurs in the United States, although it is known that infected mothers and infected vector bugs are found in this country